UK Entrepreneurs Ready for Growth

At the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013, new research is released that shows UK entrepreneurs are ready for growth.

New research released today indicates that 90% of UK entrepreneurs are optimistic and looking at increased revenue.

The research by Youth Business International (YBI) and the Kauffman Foundation looked at the views of more than 150 entrepreneurs is published in YBI’s The Entrepreneurial Environment report.

YBI’s research also found that 50% of the business people questioned expected growth to be 30% or more over the next couple of years.

As well as looking to grow their existing businesses, the report reveals that 30% of the nation’s entrepreneurs are expecting to start new ventures within the next 12 months. For budding entrepreneurs looking to start their first business, the figure rises to 53%.

The positivity in business growth extends beyond one-man operations with 76% of entrepreneurs looking to employ as many as 20 staff within three years of starting their new ventures.

Compared to last year’s sentiment, the latest opinions are far brighter. In 2012 more than two thirds of UK entrepreneurs said that since 2010 the business landscape had either gotten worse or simply stagnated.

In the same 2012 poll, a third of those questioned admitted that they had considered giving up their businesses and trying to find full time employment instead.

The new research was released at the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013 this morning at Westminster Kingsway College, London.

The launch event featured Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Luke Johnson, the entrepreneur and former boss of Pizza Express who, in the 1990s, expanded the brand’s chain of restaurants from just 25 to more than 250.

Global Enterprise Week includes over 2,500 events in the UK with around 250,000 people involved in bringing the event to life and is hosted by YBI in partnership with Barclays.

As the name suggests, The Week is a global affair taking place in 130 countries worldwide. In all, around 7.5 million people are expected to be involved in the move to encourage more budding entrepreneurs to go into business.

Speaking about the event, Andrew Devenport, the Chief Executive of Youth Business International, commented on the findings of YBI’s Entrepreneurial Environment report:

“It’s encouraging to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel for UK entrepreneurship, with one in two business owners expecting their revenue to rocket in the next few years, higher than the overall global average. And this trend extends to the experiences we have seen across our global network too, with Australia, Barbados and Canada all predicting success and growth to a similar degree. Global Entrepreneurship Week is the perfect time to make the most of this renewed enthusiasm. It engages entrepreneurs from all walks of life to swap experiences, build their networks and replicate successful business models”.

If you’d like to know more, take a look at the Global Enterprise Week website at www.gew.org.uk

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